“VIOLET HUNTER.”
“Do you know the young lady?” I asked.
“Not I.”
“It is half-past ten now.”
“Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring.”
“It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You remember that the
affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to be a mere whim at first,
developed into a serious investigation. It may be so in this case, also.”
“Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, for here, unless
I am much mistaken, is the person in question.”
As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. She was
plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, freckled like a plover’s egg,
and with the brisk manner of a woman who has had her own way to make in the
world.
“You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure,” said she, as my companion
rose to greet her, “but I have had a very strange experience, and as I have no
parents or relations of any sort from whom I could ask advice, I thought that
perhaps you would be kind enough to tell me what I should do.”
“Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything that I can to
serve you.”
I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner and speech
of his new client. He looked her over in his searching fashion, and then
composed himself, with his lids drooping and his finger-tips together, to listen to
her story.
“I have been a governess for five years,” said she, “in the family of Colonel
Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel received an appointment at
Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his children over to America with him, so that
I found myself without a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements,
but without success. At last the little money which I had saved began to run
short, and I was at my wit’s end as to what I should do.
“There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End called
Westaway’s, and there I used to call about once a week in order to see whether
anything had turned up which might suit me. Westaway was the name of the
founder of the business, but it is really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her
own little office, and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an